A teenager has been charged with 13 counts of theft from shops on Portland.

The 13-year-old appeared in Weymouth Magistrates’ Court and pleaded guilty to all 13 counts of theft from a shop which took place between September 9, and October 17.

Items were stolen from Tesco, Park Road, Portland and Co-Op, Fortuneswell, Portland, totalling a value of £182.

The defendant has been ordered to pay compensation of £51 to the Co-Op and £131 to Tesco.

Items stolen included food and drink, four bottles of vodka, a bottle of cider, another bottle of alcohol of a £35 value and an éclair.

The court has also ordered that his referral order is extended for five months once the current one that he is serving has ended.

A referral order is the community sentence most often used by the courts when dealing with 10- to 17-year-olds, particularly for first time offenders who plead guilty.

Referral orders require that an offender must agree a contract of rehabilitative and restorative elements to be completed within the sentence.

Elizabeth Valera, Prosecuting, said: “He was known both by staff and identified by CCTV [in the Co-Op]. He mainly takes drinks and food to go.”

Ms Valera explained that most of the thefts from the Co-Op took place after 8pm, except for one which took place at 1.10pm.

£51 worthg of the goods have been unrecovered.

The defendant is working with a social worker and a target worker.

The defendants mother told magistrates that she had seen a big improvement since her son started an educational programme aimed at diverting youths from the criminal justice system.

She said: "The first day I picked him up he had good spirits – it was heart-warming to see.”

Kenny Sharp, Mitigating, told the court that if the defendant continued on this path, then ‘life will become generally more miserable.’

Mr Sharp said: “He gets confidence by doing silly things like this.

“His mum is a constant source of support for him. We are immediately starting to see how things are turning around.”

He told magistrates: “You’re not a bad person, you just need to steer things round.”